Random Acts of Kindness Ideas

1. Call an aging relative or someone you’ve been meaning to catch up with for a while.
2. Donate at Fort Wayne Metals’ holiday party to Toys for Tots.
3. Surprise a family/friend/co-worker with a treat they enjoy.
4. Tell someone in your life what you love and appreciate about them.
5. Visit a nursing home. Sit and have a conversation with the residents or take some others and carol.
6. Write thank you notes to the people that serve your community (mailman, fire station, police station, teacher, etc).
7. Join NeighborLink and lend a helping hand to someone in need in the community.
8. Clean out your closets and donate to a local organization.
9. Offer help to someone with full hands.
10. Prepare and deliver a meal to someone who is in need – someone that can’t afford it, someone who recently had a baby, is ill, or has dealt with a death in the family. Or simply someone that you know that is putting in some extra hours and would have some weight lifted off of them by not having to come home and cook.
11. Tip well – leave a kind note along with it.
12. Pay for a random stranger’s meal, coffee, gas, etc.
13. Step in and do a chore your spouse is normally in charge of.
14. Send cards/care packages to deployed soldiers.
15. Smile at the people you pass. Greet them with a “Good morning/afternoon/evening.”
16. Find a local organization to volunteer for. Check with food banks, churches, YMCAs, etc.
17. Donate blood.
18. Surprise someone in your life with a planned date.
19. Give a hug or back rub to someone you know that feels love through physical touch.
20. Invite someone to your home for a meal that doesn’t have family nearby.
21. Offer to babysit/pet sit for free.
22. Let someone into line ahead of you.
23. Strike up a conversation in line with someone.
24. Take time to notice others’ hard work and compliment it. 

One of the main reasons CRP was added to the wellness screening blood panel was because of its higher efficacy in predicting risk of a heart event than LDL (bad cholesterol). A normal artery is clear and blood flows through it smoothly.  An artery with plaque may block blood a little bit but the blood still can still often flow. However, when the artery has plaque and also becomes inflamed, the blood can get blocked and this can lead to heart attack. Because heart disease is a "silent killer," measuring CRP, along with knowing your blood pressure, is just one more way to know what is going on inside your body, and to know when it is time to see a doctor.  

Pumpkin is a nutrient-dense vegetable, from the squash family, meaning it provides a generous amount of nutrients when compared to the number of calories per serving. For this reason, it is often recommended by dietitians in cholesterol or weight-controlling diets. Even if you don't fall into one of those two categories, the nutrients that pumpkins offer can benefit everyone:

• A single serving of pumpkin offers over 200% of your recommended daily Vitamin A, which plays an essential role in eyesight, and also serves to maintain the integrity of the skin.
• Pumpkin is rich in dietary fiber, which helps to keep you feeling fuller for longer, and also aids in healthy digestion.
• The orange pigment of pumpkin, like carrots, indicates beta-carotene, which is an anti-oxidant that can help prevent chronic diseases by fighting off free radicals introduced to the body.

Did you know there's a right way to take your blood pressure? Unfortunately, fasting doesn't fit within the conditions ideal for an accurate measurement, which is why blood pressure rechecks are always offered after the annual wellness screening. Additionally, there are several other factors that can produce an inaccurate, elevated reading.














In order to ensure the most accurate blood pressure reading, consider following these guidelines:

• Leading up to the measurement, avoid caffeine, tobacco, and alcohol; be sure to stop exercise at least 30 minutes prior, and empty your bladder.
• Sit for a few minutes, quietly, with your back supported and feet flat on the floor, with your legs uncrossed.
• During the reading, provide your bare arm, as a cuff over clothing can add 10-40mm Hg to your reading. Additionally, make sure your cuffed arm is supported at heart level.

When I was preparing to go on vacation with my husband last week, I packed some snacks and a couple of cold meals that I knew would hold up in a cooler, that would give me a healthy option to help me bypass the typical traveling drive thru stop. One of those meals was a salad, but when meal time came around, given all of the cycling and kayaking we had been doing, it never sounded like enough to build my energy supply back up. Finally, on the way home, the salad was all I had left, so I dug into it. And now I can't stop making/eating it. This is one of the most satisfying salads I've ever had, and it definitely fills my belly and gives me enough energy to not only make it until my next meal, but to get me through a tough workout in between, too.

The salad, altogether, is a little bit high fat, but it's all naturally occurring fat from clean sources. Here is some more information on why you may want to consider a lower carbohydrate, higher fat diet (to summarize, Harvard found that people who ate a high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet lost more than those on a low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet, even when they consumed 25,000 more calories over the course of 12 weeks).



Ingredients:
Salad:
2 oz. spinach (about 1 1/2 cups)
2 hard boiled eggs, quartered
1/2 red pepper, diced
2 green onions, slivered
1/4 cup Maple Nut Toasted Trail Mix
I've eaten this salad with goat cheese (1 oz), cheddar cheese (1 oz), and no cheese, and it tastes good every way. If you want to spare yourself 120 extra calories, 10 extra grams of fat, and 190 mg sodium, opt for no cheese.

Dressing:
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1/2 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar
Juice from 1/2 lemon
Salt, to taste

To make the salad last, I pack my dressing in a little container and tuck it into the bowl to drizzle on before I eat it. The dressing is very simple to make and saves you from a lot of unwanted, added ingredients in commercial dressings.

Nutrition Facts
523 calories // 21 g carbohydrates // 40 g fat // 20 g protein // 208 mg sodium // 13 g sugar

If you're looking for a way to encourage your family to be active together, Fort Wayne Parks may offer an opportunity for you. You can find a map of Fort Wayne's 86 parks here. Additionally, the parks department offers many programs the can help you in your efforts to be more active--as a family or solo--while also giving you a chance to connect socially with others. The entire summer schedule of programs can be found here.

Whatever helps you to get there, turn the electronics off and make your way outside. As we know too well, living in the midwest, this summer will be gone all too soon. Take advantage and enjoy it now!

The majority of information on this wellness blog focuses on two of the biggest subjects that come to mind when people consider wellness - nutrition and exercise. While these two components of wellness clearly impact your health, there are some activities/habits that people may not be as quick to link to health, like technology and, more specifically, social media use. Let's explore the connection between the two, and allow me to offer an opportunity for you to improve your health by limiting your technology use for the remainder of the month of July.

With the amount that we recognize the need to limit the screen time of children, I've been amazed that there isn't more research and media attention devoted to how screen time affects adults. With today's technology, it's nearly impossible to avoid screen time, and it seems that comes with a price.

1. Disrupted Sleep

Back in a previous post I shared all about sleep, I shared this resource, which demonstrates how the blue light from your cell phone can affect your melatonin levels, disrupting your sleep, and in turn, negatively impacting other areas of your health, like making you more susceptible to obesity and depression.

2. Increased Neck & Back Pain

The average adult head weighs 10-12 pounds, but the more your head tilts forward, the more force the neck experiences. By looking at a cell phone in your lap, with your neck flexed 60 degrees beyond neutral, your neck and spine will experience around 60 pounds of stress. Here are some more details on "text neck" and what you can do to prevent it.

3. Increased Risk of Metabolic Syndrome

It seems pretty common sense that the more screen time a person engages in, the less physical activity they are doing. But the result of that can have a brutal affect on health, leading to an increased risk of Metabolic Syndrome (a combination of Diabetes, hypertension and obesity), independent of physical activity. What that means is that people that binge on TV, even if they go out and run afterward, are still at an increased risk of developing chronic health problems.

4. Strained Relationships

According to this article from Time, based on a study published in Psychology of Popular Media Culture, those that indicated they felt dependent on their smartphone, as well as those who perceived their partner had a dependency on their smartphone, reported lower levels of connection and satisfaction in their relationships. Additionally, in studies conducted by the University of Essex in the UK, researchers found that when two strangers were put together for face-to-face conversation, those with cell phones nearby were perceived less positively than those without.

My challenge to you, for the month of July, is to limit unnecessary screen time (including internet/social media browsing, TV watching and game playing) to less than one hour each day. For every day that you do, you can earn one point toward your MyWellness balance. Throughout the month, come back here to find support and more ideas on other activities that you can replace your screen time with that carry health benefits. If you have any questions, please call Lauren at ext. 2137.

One of the biggest barriers I hear from people struggling to eat clean, nutritious food is the cost. While Fort Wayne has drawn more natural-based grocery stores in the last couple of years that offer healthier options, the open, airy, coffee-in-your-hand shopping experience can come with added costs. Enter ALDI, the no-frills, generic cousin to Trader Joe's.

ALDI has a couple of tricks up its sleeve that allows for money savings. For one, it mostly carries its own food, meaning direct sales with no middle man. Most grocery stores offer a generic brand, but ALDI is able to offer additional savings by cutting all of the frills you normally experience at a grocery store. Upon arrival at the store, you'll notice one big difference right off the bat - you have to pay for your cart. ALDI saves money that most grocery stores shell out to pay for someone to return carts to the store by requiring a quarter to unlock your cart, which you get back when you return it to the only corral, by the entrance. You'll also find that if you want bags, you have to pay for them.

Check out the way that simple, no-frills shopping can create savings on a handful of healthy food choices, when compared to a local, natural grocery store:

ALDI milk: $1.49/gallon
Fresh Thyme milk: $2.49/gallon

ALDI organic milk: $2.95/half gallon
Fresh Thyme organic milk: $4.29/half gallon

ALDI organic plain whole milk yogurt: $2.99/32 oz. container
Fresh Thyme organic plain whole milk yogurt: $4.19/32 oz. container

ALDI organic avocados: $1.99/pack of four
Fresh Thyme organic avocados: $1.99 each

ALDI seedless watermelon: $2.49
Fresh Thyme seedless watermelon: $3.99

ALDI eggs: $0.69/dozen
Fresh Thyme eggs: $1.49/dozen

ALDI grass fed beef: $5.89/pound
Fresh Thyme grass fed beef: $6.99/pound

ALDI organic free range beef or chicken broth: $1.79
Fresh Thyme organic free range beef or chicken broth: $4.79

While you may not be able to find everything you need at ALDI, if you're looking to save some money and eat well, you may find that it's the worth the extra stop for you. To find the ALDI store closest to you, check out their site.

While trail mix is often thought of as a healthy snack, many packaged versions add in some unhealthy ingredients, like preservatives and tons of added sugar, in the form of granulated sugar, candies like M&Ms and/or dried fruit. If you're interested in a cleaner option, or if you'd just like the ability to pick and choose the nuts and fixings you like best, a homemade option is a good, simple one. I only have a few nuts in the one below, but you can tailor it to suit your tastes as much as you'd like. 

Whether you're just feeding yourself, or you're trying to impress company, stuffed squash makes for a fun and beautiful, yet simple meal. If you're cooking for yourself, it's great because you end up with easily portioned leftovers for lunches, which reheat really well.



Serves: 4

Ingredients:
2 acorn squash
1 pound ground turkey
1 leek, thinly sliced (white part only)
1 red pepper (diced)
1 cup wild rice (measured in uncooked form)
Salt and pepper, to taste

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees
Cut both acorn squash in half. Place, flesh side down, on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or foil. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until fork tender.
While squash is baking, prepare wild rice according to package instructions.
In a pan, over medium heat, cook red pepper, leek and ground turkey until turkey is cooked through.
Mix wild rice in with turkey mixture, season to taste, then spoon into cooked squash.
I added a little cheese into my turkey/rice mixture before spooning into the squash, for a little extra flavor (because what doesn't taste better with cheese?)

Enjoy!

When the heat of summer rolls around, there's nothing like the comfort of a refreshing, cold treat. When I was growing up, summer meant a freezer full of ice pops and lots of trips to the local ice cream joint. It's written into my family's history - with a grandpa that owned a place called The Dairy Depot and made homemade ice cream every time I visited him, I have a lot of positive memories and associations with sugary treats. But I also have a lot of negative associations in recent years with the way sugar makes me feel. So I've come up with a few go-to desserts, along with banana ice cream, that satisfy my desire for something cold and sweet, without any added sugar.

Dreamy Creamy Slush

Simple Freezer Pops

If you are looking for a way to break into strength training, but you're intimidated by equipment, or you don't have easy access to lots of equipment, look no further. Below, you'll find a total body strength training program to help you get started, with a resistance band as your only piece of equipment. You can find resistance bands at any big box stores, and they generally sell for anywhere between $5-15, depending what you pick up. It doesn't have to be fancy, and it goes a long way in building an exercise program.

If you would like any help establishing form or finding modifications, please contact me at ext. 2137 to schedule an appointment.

With the emergence of summer weather lately, I've had an urge for a refreshing, cold drink in my hand - something a little more exciting than water. But with a commitment to live sans sugar and alcohol, finding a drink to satisfy that craving has been tough. That is, until I had to buy some mint and lime for a recipe and thought, "I could come up with something resembling a Mojito with this."

And it's good. And all the more enjoyable knowing that it's contributing to my health in a positive way. The sparkling mineral water that serves as the base of this drink offers both an exciting change from tap or bottled water because of its carbonated kick, as well as a health benefit from the naturally occurring minerals, typically stripped from filtered water, that aid in muscle function, digestion, bone health and regulate blood pressure.

After viewing our resource on finding sugar on a nutrition label, you may have gone home and been able to identify which foods are off-limits during your 30 day Sugar Challenge. But what about when you're eating out or going to a party? What do you do when you don't have a label to check?

1. Check Out Your Options Before You Order

If you are going out to eat at a chain restaurant or fast food joint, you can typically find nutrition information, including ingredients, on their website. Restaurants that don't have this information on their website most likely have an ingredient list on-site. If you want to ensure that there is no sugar in your meal, request this list prior to ordering.



2. Assume Certain Things Have Sugar

When in doubt, you can generally assume that these foods contain sugar:

• Bacon and lunch meats
• Bread or bread crumbs 
• Flour tortillas/wraps
• Salsa
• Sauces (including marinara)
• Condiments (although yellow mustard is a safe bet)
• Salad dressing

In the midst of hosting our first Strength Training 101 session yesterday, lots of information was shared, and several great questions were posed by those that attended, which I would like to use here to create a go-to guide for general strength training programs.

Frequency: Strength gains can be made by committing to as little as twenty minutes, two days per week. If you're aiming for efficiency, plan to incorporate exercises that recruit large muscle groups, as well as multiple muscle groups at one time, such as lunges with bicep curls.

Choosing Equipment: There are many kinds of equipment that are useful for building a strength training program - everything from resistance bands to medicine balls, dumbbells, barbells, and even large pieces of selectorized equipment that focus on isolating one muscle group at a time. But even if you don't have any equipment, there are ways to use your body weight only to create resistance for strength training. There is no wrong choice, but there is a lot of value in building a routine that uses several modalities, especially if you've reached a plateau in your results.

Choosing Sets/Repetitions: The amount of sets and repetitions you use in your routine should depend on your goal. Typically, when beginning an exercise program, two sets of 15-20 repetitions works really well for establishing good form, muscle memory, and muscular endurance. Once you are comfortable with the exercises you are doing, three sets of 8-12 repetitions is a good general rule for improving both strength and muscular endurance. I like this guide for choosing the set and rep range that will work best for your goals.

Choosing a Weight: When you are first incorporating strength into a workout routine, start with low weight, focusing more on learning proper form. Once you are comfortable, you want to work to maximum effort (failure), within your repetition range. For instance, working in the 8-12 repetition range, if you find you can lift a given weight more than 12 times, you'll want to increase your weight the next set, so that you settle on a weight that you can lift at least 8 times, but no more than 12.

Rest: After working a given muscle group to maximum effort, it will need to rest before being able to complete another set. Like sets and repetitions, your amount of rest time should depend on your goal. If you're aiming for maximizing your strength, a longer rest period (3-5 minutes) is necessary to go along with your smaller repetition range and a higher weight. For muscular endurance, allow your muscles 45 seconds to no more than two minutes between sets.

You can minimize your rest periods to maximize your workout efficiency by opting for a circuit-style workout routine. In this case, you would move from one exercise to the next, to the next, before circling back around to complete your next set. You can stagger your exercises so that you are using different muscle groups. Rather than having to stand around and wait for your biceps to recover after doing curls, you can rest them as you are working a different muscle group, like your triceps.

Understanding Muscle Contraction: There are three ways a muscle contracts during movement, which are helpful to know when you are strength training.

• Concentric contraction occurs when the muscle shortens during work. For example, when doing a bicep curl, the concentric contraction occurs as the arm raises (the bicep shortens during this movement). A more simple way to think about concentric contraction is that it occurs when you are exerting force against a resistance.
• Eccentric contraction occurs when the muscle lengthens. In the same example as above, the eccentric phase of a bicep curl occurs as the arm lowers back to its starting, straight position.
• Isometric contraction occurs when the muscle is neither shortening nor lengthening. One example of an isometric exercise is a plank, where you are holding yourself in a single position.

Breathing: In order to keep your blood pressure from spiking, from holding your breath while exerting force (a mechanism known as the Valsalva Maneuver), focus on exhaling while you are in the concentric phase of your movement. Inhale to provide your muscles with much needed oxygen in the eccentric phase. If you are working isometrically, just be sure to maintain a steady breathing pattern.

What Exercises to Include: As I mentioned above, the most efficient way to train your total body is to select exercises that work large muscle groups and/or multiple muscle groups at the same time, and to pick at least one exercise for each main muscle group in your body. The main muscle groups include glutes, legs (hamstrings & quadriceps), chest, back, biceps, triceps and shoulders. To find exercises for each muscle group, and for every type of equipment, my favorite resource is the Bodyspace app, by Bodybuilding.com. You can build a custom workout by searching in multiple ways for exercises that will work with what you have at your disposal.




While these are great general tips for strength training, I recognize that strength training is an exercise component that needs a lot of personalization and can be pretty overwhelming. Luckily, I'm here to help on a more individual basis. If you are interested in learning more, or in having a program pieced together for you, please contact me at ext. 2137 or lauren_almdale@fwymca.org.

The American Heart Association has set the following blood pressure ranges for identifying your health risk:





















The reason blood pressure monitoring is so important is because hypertension has been deemed "the silent killer" - it generally is a symptomless disease, but the extra pressure on your arteries can lead to the following health consequences, when left untreated:

• Heart attack, heart disease, congestive heart failure
• Stroke
• Kidney damage
• Vision loss
• Memory loss
• Fluid in the lungs
• Angina
• Peripheral artery disease

Have you ever taken a look at the ingredients labels on your most commonly used foods? Chances are, if your food comes from a package, can, bottle or jar, there's likely to be at least one mystery ingredient that you can't pronounce or have no clue what it is. Allow me to demonstrate with Hellman's mayonnaise:

Source

Homemade Mayo

Some benefits to highlight:

Greater Fat Loss & Increased Metabolism
Most people have heard or assume that cardiovascular exercise is the best way to lose fat. I've had many people come to me because they've been doing cardio for an hour each day and have reached a plateau in their weight loss efforts. While incorporating a cardio routine is beneficial for weight loss and for your heart health, you're only burning calories while you're in the midst of the activity. When you incorporate strength training into your routine, you not only lose fat, you also build lean body mass, which boosts your metabolism, helping you to burn more calories daily.

Improved Low Back Pain
Most low back pain is experienced because of a weak core. When you strength train properly, you engage your core in a way that promotes greater strength, and thus, a reduction in the pain you experience during all activities.

Stronger Bones
One of the leading causes of injuries in seniors is falling, which can often result in broken bones. Not only can strength training develop the stabilizing muscles that can help to reduce falls altogether, it also helps to improve bone density, staving off osteoporosis, and making bones more resistant to fractures or breaks if a fall does occur.

Better Control of Blood Sugar
If you are at risk of developing Diabetes or you are already living with it, strength training can help you in multiple ways. Not only will strength training help you to lose weight, it also plays a crucial role in helping your body respond more effectively to insulin and to manage the way it uses blood sugar. According to a study funded by the National Institute of Health, men who did strength training for 1-59 minutes per week reduced their Diabetes risk by 12%, those who did 60-149 minutes per week reduced their risk by 25%, and those who did at least 150 minutes of strength training weekly reduced their risk by 34%.


And now, for some myth busting. Here are some common myths I've heard through my years as a personal trainer and wellness coach:

"Strength training will make me look too big."
While it is possible to hypertrophy (increase your muscle size) through strength training, it requires a specific type of training, mostly lifting to maximum effort in a low-repetition range. You can easily gain strength without size by doing strength training somewhere in the 10-12 repetition range. If it puts your mind at ease, you can also practice strength training with only your body weight.

I hear this misconception most often from women. There is a reason that men look larger and tend to gain more muscle mass when they strength train, and it's mostly testosterone-induced. Because women produce such low amounts of testosterone, it is much more difficult for us to bulk. Unless you are taking supplements and overloading your muscles considerably, you won't experience anywhere near the kind of hypertrophy men are capable of.

"I can't strength train because I don't have a gym membership," or, "I can't strength train because I don't have enough time to go to the gym."
You don't need a whole gym full of equipment to do strength training. In fact, it's possible to build a strength training program without any extra equipment at all. If you're interested, I have some great resources available for you.

"I'm focusing on training for a race, and strength training doesn't fit into that."
Strength training not only helps to decrease your risk of injury when training for a cardio-based event, it also helps to improve your aerobic and muscular endurance, which can add a lot of value to your training and improve your performance.

"I have to get into better shape before I can start strength training."
Strength training can actually be a great place to build an exercise program. You may find that it is easier to recognize gains/improvements in your strength that can both aid your cardiovascular training, and give you the kind of encouragement and motivation to establish a healthier lifestyle.


If you, as an employee or spouse of an employee, are interested in learning more about how you can incorporate strength training into your daily routine, I would love to help. Please call Lauren Almdale at extension 2137 or email me at lauren_almdale@fwmetals.com

• NREM (Non-Rapid Eye Movement) sleep consists of the first 4/5 stages of sleep. During the course of NREM sleep, your muscle movement, breathing and heart rate slow, your temperature lowers in an effort to bring you into a resting state where you can settle into a deep sleep. Stage three and four are where you will find deep sleep, where the brain produces delta waves, the muscles experience very little activity, and your body develops a slow, deep rhythmic breathing pattern. If you've ever been woken up and felt very confused about where you are or what day it is, chances are you were pulled out of stage three or four in your sleep cycle.
• REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep is when you dream. Your body continues its involuntary life-sustaining processes, but otherwise, your muscles go into shut down mode and remain paralyzed in this stage.

As a wellness coach and personal trainer, I'm often asked for ideas on how to be healthier and more fit. My personal wellness journey has looked less like a path, and more like a roller coaster over the last 10 years, with me slowly figuring things out along the way with some good old fashioned trial and error. I've decided to compile a list of the things that currently make me sing, a la Julie Andrews, when it comes to living a healthy lifestyle.


1. Vegetable Spiralizer
One of the keys I've found to keeping vegetables exciting is variety, not just in which veggies I use, but also in how I prepare them. This spiralizer, with several different attachments, just recently entered my home and has been great for making twirlable zucchini noodles for zusketti, curly fries that I bake for a healthier treat, and for cucumber threads, which make a great base for a cold salad dish. There are endless possibilities. Check out this site for more ideas.

2. Doyogawithme.com
I've had a wonderful relationship with this website for almost three years now. With several teachers, in several different styles, designed for a range of experience levels, anyone can experience what it's like to fall in love with a mat for the beautiful cost of $0.

3. Whole30
As someone who grew up on TV dinners and nutty bars and was calling out fast food restaurants by name at the ripe age of two, old habits tend to die hard. I've established an overall healthy lifestyle, but occasionally, a couple bites here and there of those things I once loved can cause me to lose my focus and fall back into an unhealthy relationship with food. Enter Whole30, which I do every once in a while to remind myself why nutrition matters. This whole food based, 30 day diet is designed to be a springboard for a healthy lifestyle. Its strict rules allow your body to recover and learn what it's like to live without a lot of common food sensitivities. If you're not sure how it could possibly help you, check out their testimony page to see the amazing things its done for people with health issues ranging from autoimmune disorders to depression to infertility, and so much more.

4. Bodyspace
I've often heard strength training referred to as the "real fountain of youth," but there is a large population that is missing out on the numerous benefits because of the intimidation factor. If you're not sure how to start a strength training program, one useful tool I've found is Bodyspace, an app/online community run by Bodybuilding.com. Don't let the name fool you - you don't need to be a wannabe bodybuilder to use it. The app has strength training programs for every level, put together by top personal trainers.

5. Thrive Market
If you're a lover of online shopping and having gifts showered upon your doorstep, Thrive Market is a great way to find healthy products, including healthy packaged foods for everyone from babies to pets, supplements, cleaner beauty and hygiene products and housewares. Think of it as Costco without the bulk. You pay for an annual membership, and in return you get wholesale prices. Thrive offers a free trial period if you'd like to dip your toes in the water.

6. Tazo Wild Sweet Orange Tea
This tea has helped me both in my efforts to cut down on my caffeine consumption and to eliminate processed sugar from my diet. It still gives me the satisfaction of holding a warm drink in my hand in the morning and satisfies my afternoon sugar craving. It is zesty and delicious and wonderful.

7. Kettlebells
Using kettlebells in your exercise routine adds more dynamic, total body movements. To learn more about what kettlebells do, and to get tips on using them, visit this previous blog post.

8. Chipotle
I'm not sure Chipotle will ever fall off my list of favorite things. Rooted in whole foods prepared in-house, with responsibly sourced meet and no added sugar, Chipotle is one of the very few places I trust for a quick, healthy meal on the go. If you'd like to learn more about Chipotle's food practices, click here. And in case you're wondering, my favorite order is a veggie bowl with white rice, fajita veggies, pico de gallo, green salsa and a large helping of guacamole. Yum.

9. Tabata
Let's be real here - while I love Tabata, it could also easily fall on my list of least favorite things as well. The reason I hate Tabata is it is hard. To be done effectively, it requires an all-out effort for 20 seconds at a time, followed by a very short 10 second rest period. The reason I love Tabata (which outweighs the hate) is that it only takes up four minutes of your day, and according to a study by Dr. Izumi Tabata, is more effective than an hour of steady state cardio in burning fat and improving anaerobic and aerobic capacity. This is a great resource for understanding more about Tabata and how to incorporate it into an exercise program.

What are your favorite finds that help you in your wellness journey? I'd love to see you share in the comment section below. If you'd like more information on any of the above, please contact me at ext. 2137.

One of my goals as a wellness coach is to help people tap into resources available to them, that will help them engage in a healthy lifestyle. At one point, I highlighted Fresh Thyme, in Fort Wayne. That being said, there are many people that live outside of Fort Wayne for which accessing organic, healthy food can be largely inconvenient. One possible solution to that problem is Green BEAN Delivery. Green BEAN Delivery is a midwest company that is built on the idea that people should be able to access local, healthy, sustainable food in a convenient, affordable way. Green BEAN is a subscription based service which delivers your food directly to your doorstep.

The way this works for you is that you select how much local produce you want to receive each delivery as your base. You can either receive a pre-selected variety of fruits and vegetables, or you can customize your order online. Once you've reached your minimum order of produce, you can also choose to add on additional groceries, which include the following.


You have the ability to set your own schedule, whether it's a weekly, bi-weekly or even monthly delivery. You can choose to skip a delivery or suspend them altogether at any point, without any penalties if you choose to resume.

To see a sample bin, along with what groceries Green BEAN offers, visit their online store.

Green BEAN Delivery doesn't offer its deliveries to every home. To check whether your address is within their delivery zone, visit this page. If your home is not within their delivery zone, there are some employees on Fort Wayne Metals' first shift that have coordinated their drop off here. They ask to receive a call upon arrival and meet the delivery driver to intercept their bin. Your bins come with an insulated liner and ice packs, so you do not need to be home to receive your food.

For additional questions, please visit the FAQ page, on Green BEAN's site.